A heritor was a privileged person in a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

Scots law Scots law () is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Ireland l ...

. In its original acceptation, it signified the proprietor of a heritable subject, but, in the law relating to parish government, the term was confined to such proprietors of lands or houses as were liable, as written in their title

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...

s, for the payment of ''public burdens'', such as the minister's stipend,

manse A manse () is a clergy house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and other Christian traditions. Ultimately derived from the Latin ''mansus'', "dwelling", from '' ...

and

glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

assessments, schoolmaster's salary, poor rates, ''rogue-money'' (for preventing crime) as well as road and bridge assessments, and others like public and county burdens or, more generally, ''cess'', a land tax. A ''liferenter''Bell, page 531 might be liable to ''cess'' and so be entitled to vote as an heritor in the appointment of the minister, schoolmaster, etc. The occasional female landholder so liable was known as a ''heritrix''. In

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

the term heritor was used to denote the

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...

landholders of a parish until the early 20th century. For example, in the early 20th century the heritors of the Highland Parish of Crathie and Braemar were the estates of

Mar Lodge Mar Lodge is a sporting lodge to the west of Braemar and the principal building on the Mar Lodge Estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was built in 1895, replacing an earlier building, by Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife. Location Mar Lodge i ...

, Invercauld, Balmoral, and Abergeldie. Historically, land-holding in

in nature, meaning that all land is technically "owned" by the Crown, which, centuries ago, gave it out – feued it – to various

tenants-in-chief In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as oppos ...

in return for specified services or obligations. These obligations became largely financial in time, or ceremonial or at least notional. Similarly, these tenants-in-chief gave parcels of land out to lesser "owners", and the resulting reciprocal obligations too became financial – feudal dues – or notional. Often, though, conditions were imposed by the

feudal superior Examples of feudalism are helpful to fully understand feudalism and feudal society. Feudalism was practiced in many different ways, depending on location and time period, thus a high-level encompassing conceptual definition does not always provid ...

at the time of the transaction – used in the 19th century as a form of planning control. The result was that "landowners" had differing rights to the land they "owned". However, those who held their land without limit of time – that is, only had a ceremonial or ancient financial obligation towards their notional "superiors" – were distinguished from others and were called heritors. In effect, they were the

gentry Gentry (from Old French ''genterie'', from ''gentil'', "high-born, noble") are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. Word similar to gentle imple and decentfamilies ''Gentry'', in its widest ...

of the Scots countryside, with legal privileges and obligations. Most ordinary farmers rented their land for a specific period of time from the heritors. Like the

in other countries, the heritors ruled the countryside. They were responsible for justice,

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and order in their district and for keeping the

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

s in good repair. They were responsible for appointing – and paying – the minister and the schoolmaster, and for maintaining the church, manse and schoolhouse. They had also to provide for the poor of their parish. For all this they levied a rate on all the heritors in the parish – and often included non-heritor tenant farmers in the rate.

Sources

* * * * Bell, William (revised by Ross, G) ''A Dictionary and Digest of the Law of Scotland, with short explanations of the most ordinary English law terms Bell & Bradfute, Edinburgh, 186

Notes

References

{{Reflist Legal history of Scotland Scots law legal terminology